Bay Area Symphony Orchestra Performs Audience Favorites

Bay Area Symphony Orchestra's summer concert took place Thursday night at Bayport-Blue Point High School. The group consists of 100 members who range from school-age musicians to retired community members.

Conducted by David Johnson, the ensemble opened with The Star Spangled Banner and went on to perform seven other numbers, including Stars and Stripes, a medley from the Apollo 13 soundtrack and Johann Strauss' Trisch-Trasch Polka.

Johnson has led the Bay Area Symphony Orchestra since he founded the group in 2006. He also teaches orchestra and music theory at Bayport-Blue Point High School.

What began five summers ago as a small concert group consisting of 25 musicians who performed at Bayport Memorial Park, has grown to a 100-member symphony orchestra that holds an annual concert each summer.

Members are either current students, alumni  or teachers from Bayport-Blue Point, Connetquot, South Country, Sayville and Deer Park school districts, as well as others.

Johnson referred to the musicians involved in the orchestra this year as "a well-rounded group that is so fun to work with."

To prepare for the concert, the group only rehearsed six times, all of which "were like a concert" for Johnson, he said. "But this one's for you guys," he said to the audience about Thursday's performance.